Recession hurt but Millbrook remains on track toward self-sufficiency

Millbrook First Nation in Truro, Nova Scotia, is well-positioned to develop their community into a self-sufficient First Nation, says Chief Lawrence Paul, “We have a wide range of developments underway, including a land-based aquaculture development growing Arctic Char,” and the chief notes the reason for a land-based growing facility, “Apparently the saltwater is too contaminated to grow healthy fish for human consumption so they are growing them in a land-based re-circulation system.”

He says the Arctic char are currently growing in the tanks in a Millbrook-owned facility, “There is a building on our Millbrook First Nation property, leased from us, and a few tents. They are hatching and beginning to grow out the salmon and trout.” This is but one in a list of economic developments that puts the Millbrook First Nation on the pathway to self-sufficiency.

“We developed the Truro Power Centre in 2001, which now includes a call centre, motel, RV park,  restaurant, and Tim Hortons,” and an anchor tenant in Sobey’s, which was the first tenant at the Truro Power Centre. On a satellite-reserve in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Millbrook First Nation has a new building that General Dynamics leased a couple years ago. General Dynamics will be designing, maintaining, and servicing software for the new Canadian Forces Sikorsky helicopters, which will begin arriving in Dartmouth in November 2010. 

In fact, this Mi'kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia governs the reserves of Millbrook IR 27, Cole Harbour 30, Beaver Lake I.R. 17, Sheet Harbour IR 36, Truro 27a, Truro 27b,and Truro 27c. Chief Paul works with a 12-member council that has highly qualified personnel in elected positions. They are elected from a membership over 1,400, “Closer to 1,500,” says the chief, “and that will increase to we expect close to 1,800 with a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision,” McIvor v. Canada (Registrar of Indian and Northern Affairs), [2009] B.C.J. No. 669, the B.C. Court of Appeal, “that affects Band membership across Canada.” 

Prior to the current endeavors in economic development, says Lawrence, “our focus had been on the Highway 102 Connector to the TransCanada Highway. Now the focus is on a new hotel in immediate vicinity to Truro, Nova Scotia, in a destination-oriented tourism property that will include an indoor climate-controlled waterpark. “It will be busy from September to May each year,” says the chief. 

At the Cole Harbour reserve the Millbrook First Nation has VLT (Video Lottery Terminals) making them money. “These VLT’s are good income for Millbrook,” says the chief, “big breadwinners.” The VLT’s supplied much needed income for some of the current development that Millbrook is undergoing, and much-needed cash benefits to the community membership. “Every man, woman, and child receives $1,000 in the third week of June and $1,500 each November. For those under 19 years of age the money is held in trust until they become of-age.” 

The Millbrook community is able to thrive and people are working, “We are creating jobs for ourselves and adding community services, like a health centre and a youth centre. Our kids are enrolled in the public school system. We have 19 graduates coming out of high school this year.

“We have accessed programs at university and Nova Scotia Community College trades so our graduates can pursue post-secondary opportunities. Our administrators have university educations. For example, Alex Code, Band Manager, got a B.Admin at University of New Brunswick.”

Millbrook’s leadership mentored a handful of their members to become educated and available for administrative duties for a growing group of Millbrook communities. Once the 102 connector highway was established, due to no small amount of lobbying by Millbrook, they obtained access to the mainstream of provincial life and commercial opportunities began to emerge. 

“Commercially we are doing well, and the goal is self-sufficiency,” says Lawrence. “We are breaking away from government dependency and economic development is our course.” The excitement around Millbrook these days relates to the new hotel, naturally, “a $27 million facility that will employ skilled workers when it’s built,” and meanwhile, contracts to build will supplies jobs for a pool of labour.

Chief Lawrence Paul is an elder now, and he had a long career in various kinds of endeavors, “I was an auto body man, a furnace repair man, I went to business college, and Nova Scotia Agriculture College. I was in the army in 1951,” where he spent time in Germany during the post-war period of German reconstruction. He says, “In 1984, I decided to run for chief,” and he has served 14 consecutive terms now, 28 years in the office. “I am not ready for retirement. I have another term in me after this one.”

About 700 people live in the Millbrook sub-divisions beside Truro, “We have Band members all over Canada and the U.S.,” and those members can be proud of their ancestral home, “Native people are going to go forward same as the rest of society,” says the chief, “toward self-sufficiency and into the fight for the almighty dollar,” he quips. “Now that we have leveled the playing field we are promoting education as the way forward for our people.”

Self-sufficiency is in the not-too-distant future. “The recession hurt us too, but we recovered and we have opportunities to pursue that will make it happen sooner rather than later,” including management of the building and Band-owned property in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Glenn Squires is CEO of Pacrim Hospitality Services of Halifax that developed and manages the Super 8 Motel located at the power centre, and Glenn says Millbrook's practical business model works well for the firm, one of Canada's largest privately-owned hotel management companies. 

 "We enjoy working with Millbrook and had a great experience with the partnership model, which works to the advantage of all," says Squires. "The relationship is very collaborative and geared to a win-win over the duration of any given project. We have done several quite successful projects with Millbrook and plan to do more in the future."

Power Centre businesses include a multiplex theatre, sit-down and drive-through restaurants, a 50-room hotel, a recreational vehicle retailer, a service station, a call centre, an aquaculture facility and the Glooscap Heritage Centre. Truro Power Centre is not the only location Millbrook has to offer for partnership opportunities.

The band owns other lands in Nova Scotia, including 19 hectares in Cole Harbour. In the past five years, the area has seen significant activity, and the Band built two apartment buildings in 2003 and 2007 worth more than $11 million. The buildings were designed specifically for empty nesters.

Cutting them loose to the forest industry

]The BC Forest Safety Council is involved with the restoration process required in B.C.s beetle ravaged and decadent forests, and the organization is watching the uphill fight with funding for the massive process of forest remediation. 
     

Steve Mueller, Director of Workforce Development for the BCFSC, says, "The federal government announced $1 billion to remedy problems from the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) but the money was diverted to highways, bridges, and airport runways," he notes ruefully.
     

It appears the federal direction is missing in the management of the MPB crisis, although one initiative is more recent, "The Community Development Trust Fund (federal dollars for B.C.) is funding $500,000 inclusive of First Nations in programs directly related to training for the forestry siiviculture industry." He says there are 1,000 training seats available for truck driver training, machine and other safety training, and forestry supervisory training.
     

This funding is issued with parity inclusive of First Nations and the training is delivered to the grassroots in safety training on vehicles and forestry management. Meanwhile BCFSC is working on safety training programs for fallers, "We're have developed new faller training and delivered it to several First Nation communities," including Lytton Indian Band.
     
Mueller is closely engaged in the faller training initiatives underway this year. "Faller training is a 3-stage process including 30 days of field instruction, four days of classroom, and work-experience in the field with professional foresters." Following the course there is a 180-day practicum under the Safe Companies Program of WorksafeBC.
     
"Fallers are certifiable after 180 days," which means they are eligible to challenge for certification as a safe logger in B.C., "but they have to be experienced on falling trees larger than 6" at the butt." At BCFSC, "We do the 30-day training and cut them loose, and it's essentially a form of apprenticeship. Presently the economy affects their job prospects."
      

Mueller says, "I am proud of all the people we have trained. And I see an increasing role for First Nations in the provincial forests. For many of these opportunities training is required." He has made an insightful observation from these later years of exposure to the growing body of First Nation foresters. "Last year I presented on safety at the Aboriginal Forestry Industry Council. I was impressed by the young professional foresters who concentrated on safety right from the get-go."
      

He said their primary interest in safety flies in the face of old-school logging, and they have a persistent determination to overcome other barriers to learning because it remains an issue that First Nations have extraordinary challenges. "They have literacy issues in some cases, and technical concepts are often written."
      

Meanwhile, says, Mueller, First Nations are keen on the forest industry as a profession with a future. And he notes, "Siliviculture is a big business and employment opportunity for the First Nations." He notes the Western Silviculture Contractors Assocation has a large involvement in the current training scenarios from the aforementioned federal trust funds.

Bio-coal scenario fits neatly into Canadian law regarding emission control

Under Canadian law coal-fired power plants must begin to reduce CO2 emmissions or face penalty and to encourage the reductions the power generation companies can obtain carbon credits, says Bill McIntyre, Vice-President Marketing and Sales Canadian Bio-Coal Ltd.. Torrefaction is a feasible method for improvement the properties of biomass as a fuel as a coal substitute for power generation plants around the world.

The preparation of high-grade biochar through the controlled, low temperature microwave activation of bug killed wood and waste materials providing an emission free technology for the production of bio-mass char, marketing and transportation services.

McIntyre explains that some of the advantages of treated biomass include low water content, calorific value similar to coal, low oxygen to carbon ratios. The bio-coal is suitable for micronisation, stable for long term storage, and contains consistent physical properties.

"The bio-coal industry was developed in Britain and takes wood chip bio-mass through micro-wave technology," and the process can be applied to any type of wood, including the crown of a tree and the bark left on the forest floor after timber harvest. "If it's on the forest floor it's use-able." 

Canadian Bio-Coal Ltd. principals traveled to Britain a couple of years ago and obtained the marketing and distribution rights, and, "When we first started we took the technology to the major forestry companies in the province of B.C., offering a brand new revenue stream that would help solve problems in the forests. We found no interest." 

Then they turned to the First Nations, "and we outlined all the benefits in May 2009. The interest level was there so we returned to Terrace in January of 2010. We began to realize it would be First Nations that would drive this technology forward. They have the fibre, they have the access to freight bio-mass to the facilities." 

Canadian Bio-Coal Ltd. is in joint-venture mode with two Bands in the area of the North-West Pacific, and they are consulting with First Nation Forestry Council to create an information stream to other Bands in the region. They are arranging long-term contractual scenarios for rail freight of the end-product for shipping to international markets that exist everywhere, including Europe and China. 

The torrefaction of bio-mass is an improvement in the shipping of bio-mass because shipping wood pellets creates a fire-threat, "Wood pellets are known to catch fire on-board ship." Wood waste when piled up creates a high amount of heat generation, enough to start fires even when sitting motionless, for the wood continues to settle according to the law of gravity. Add the motion of ship transport at sea, the fire hazard becomes rather extreme. Bio-coal is fire-safe in these circumstances of ship and rail transport. 

The plan for production involves development of a three and a half acre site including storage facilities; development will be in proximity to road and rail. The process of making coal takes less time than producing charcoal. Bio-mass includes all types of trees, aspen and birch included, bio-mass left behind from clear-cuts.
    

The process uses a large scale oven that is totally sealed and applies microwave technology to produce no emissions. The process takes the heat generated in the oven and diverts it back to the pre-dry stage, and takes gases to create electricity around the facilities. The world demand for wood pellets was 1.5 million tonnes last year. 
    

With 799 coal-fired electrical generation plants around the world the future burns bright for Canadian produced bio-coal, and the company is looking at Terrace to build the first facilities. "We believed in 2009 that First Nations would drive this industry and we believe it now. They have the forestry business acumen and they have the wood fibre. They are seeking well-paying assets for their communities." 
    

McIntyre says, "We'll take the bug-infested wood, we can take anything," including the decadent forestry timber found in Nisga'a and Gitxsan, "and we are working with people like Keith Atkinson fo the FNFC." 
     

Atkinson says, "We are willing to produce documentation and presentation of the investment potential for this new industry," and, says he, "FNFC promotes First Nation equity in the forestry industry. We must have transparency and public disclosure in the business dealings. We want to see business resources put into First Nation communities." 
    

FNFC is promoting value-added forestry prospects, "Business is coming into First Nation territories and relying on First Nation owned resources to make a profit. Cooperation with First Nations at all levels of the business cycle will do a great deal to reduce the uncertainty of their business prospects."
    

Meanwhile, regarding the mitigation of fire threats in the province of B.C.,  Atkinson notes, "The Ministry of Forests has already declared fire season is underway, as of April 15, 2010." He adds that it is a bit of an 'I told you so' scenario from the FNFC membership point of view.

60 year Altagas agreement is rather unheard of

Myles Dougan is Vice-President in charge of communications at Altagas, speaking to the Forrest Kerr Run-of-River Hydro project that is proceeding in northern B.C. within the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation. Dougan says, “This is a really good project that we are proceeding with, establishing long-term relationships with the Tahltan and BC Hydro.”

 

The project is signed with a 60-year agreement to sell power to BC Hydro, 195 MWh, enough to power 70,000 homes, “The 60-year agreement is rather unheard of,” says Dougan, “twenty, twenty-five are common, but 60 years is quite something.” The signings include transmission agreements. “That is the expectation.”

 

The project is under construction and initial clearing of the site is done, “and we are proceeding with the second half of initial construction. Everything is proceeding toward a completion date that will see power delivered to grid by 2014.

The Forrest Kerr Project will channel a portion of the Iskut River flow through a tunnel to an underground powerhouse, where it will pass through turbines to produce electricity before it is returned to the river. The Forrest Kerr Project was issued an environment assessment certificate in March 2010. Site development activities are currently underway and AltaGas anticipates initiating construction immediately.

 

"This project represents an exciting partnership for AltaGas with the Tahltan Nation and with the Government of British Columbia,” added Mr. Cornhill. “The Forrest Kerr Project will be a significant renewable energy asset, and is supported by 40 years of hydrology data and analysis.”

AltaGas and the Tahltan Nation have established a strong working relationship that will see the people of the Tahltan Nation having employment and business opportunities and economic participation in the Forrest Kerr Project.

 "The Tahltan Nation is proud of this Impact Benefit Agreement with Coast Mountain Hydro Corp. and the increased economic security that it will provide for generations to come,” said Annita McPhee, Chair, Tahltan Central Council. “This agreement establishes ownership, management of our resources and profit sharing while taking into consideration the protection of our environment as a renewable energy project. This IBA will set the bar for resource development projects and demonstrates the results of a successful relationship with a company in Tahltan Territory that respects our Aboriginal title and rights"

The Forrest Kerr construction site located in northwest British Columbia, about 100 km from Stewart, BC., AltaGas expects the Forrest Kerr Project to be the first of three run-of-river power generation projects in the area. The company continues development of its McLymont Creek and Volcano Creek projects.

 

“The Forrest Kerr Project represents an important evolution in AltaGas’ power business as we continue to build long-term contracted generation assets,” said David Cornhill, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AltaGas. “These projects will provide the people of British Columbia with clean and reliable power from a significant water resource. For our investors, this announcement comes at an important time in history as governments move to reduce emissions while building for the future.”

The Forrest Kerr Project is to be constructed wholly within Tahltan Nation traditional territory and is estimated to cost a total of approximately $700 million. Once completed, the project will offset more than 450,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalents annually. The Forrest Kerr Project will deliver electricity to the terminus point of a 287-kV Northwest Transmission Line (NTL), near Bob Quinn, BC. (BC Hydro is developing the NTL.)

Meanwhile Altagas successfully completed of the Bear Mountain Wind Energy Project at Dawson Creek, B.C., after they began erecting wind turbines in May 2009. By July 2009, the first wind turbine was completed, and by October the construction of 34 wind turbines was completed, on budget and ahead of schedule. “So far the electrical generation is not quite as strong as we had hoped,” but time, and more wind, will tell the story.

Mutual benefits bring LNIB and Trace Resources together

Trace Resources in Merritt, B.C., is a company closely tied to working with First Nations like Lower Nicola Indian Band, leasing land on LNIB reserve property, employing First Nations from LNIB, and working with the Shulus Forestry, owned by LNIB (run by Trevor Ball).
   

 Ron Racine is one of the owners of Trace Resources. “We run our operations on LNIB, near Merritt, and we employ people there. We’ve been operating for one and a half years manufacturing forestry fibre for chips, hog fuel, and some logs for market.”
    

The company picks the highest value usage for the fibre and ultimately uses a lot of low-cost fibre in their operations. In fact, the company has caught the attention of the B.C. government, “With companies like Trace, we’re turning the mountain pine beetle infestation into a bioenergy opportunity that will create jobs and meet our climate goals,” said Forestry Minister Pat Bell, while he toured Trace’s grinding operations north of Merritt.
    

“We’re seeing a whole new industry developing – an industry that leaves no piece of wood behind.”  Trace Resources formed in October 2008 in answer to new opportunities around the utilization of wood waste. Together with an affiliated company, Jaeden Resources, it recently put into operation two grinders and loaders worth $1.8 million.
    

Trace is following the learning curve and, “learning by doing,” says Racine. Chips are used by pulp mills like Harmac Pacific Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp mill located on the east coast of Vancouver Island near Nanaimo, British Columbia, and Howe Sound Pulp and Paper. Hog Fuel is sold there, and to Belgium. Logs go to market. 
    

Racine says, “LNIB was looking for partners to move products from their forestry operations and we were looking for land to put our operations, and fibre for those operations, and skills in forestry operations,” and found all of this in LNIB. Racine’s company found the LNIB operations and personnel to be innovative and relationship oriented.
    

Racine says, “The relationship is based on three principles, the land lease, the employment of LNIB personnel both directly and indirectly, and the operation of the FRA forest license owned by LNIB.” Trace operates on a ten hectare site north-west of Merritt. “We have buildings, a scale for weighing fibre, and a chip plant. Some of the timber is processed for log sales.”

The company maximizes profits from the wood fibre they receive from LNIB and other First Nation forest licensees. “It’s full utilization of the wood.”

Log moving done by barge at Seaspan

Seaspan International moves logs on the water. They do it on the west coast and run logs from Alaska to California, but we’re talking to the Vancouver offices, and Glen Mcgee, Manager, Log Barge Division. “We celebrated our 100th anniversary a couple years ago,” says Mcgee.
    

First Nations work for Seaspan in positions, “across the whole fleet, captains, mates, deck hands,” and logs moved by Seaspan come from First Nation forestry operations more and more on the west coast, “It’s changing,” says Mcgee, “It used to be the big forestry companies. Now First Nations and a lot of smaller companies are brokering wood and moving logs to market.”
     

Seaspan makes direct contact with First Nations or intermediaries to market fibre, “A company like John Mohammed’s A & A Trading hires us to move the wood that is owned by First Nations Nuxalk Nation and Klahoose First Nation.” Other things have changed with Seaspan, “We used to be in log towing by log boom, but now we operate log barges, three of them, moving logs, and chip scows to barge chips to pulp mills.”
    

Safety comes first in the business of moving logs at Seaspan. “It looks simple but there are no second chances. We find various levels of safety on the docks are facilities that we visit, but the big companies like ourselves put in tons of training and adhere to the highest standards. It varies and we are more vigilant in some of the local pick-ups.
    

A run from Vancouver to Anchorage for example is a 10-day round trip. Nanaimo to Port Alberni is a 36 hour voyage. Seaspan log barges have a crew of six, four working at a time (two on respite). The crews are flown in and out. The personnel are machine experienced employees receiving good pay and good tme-out periods. “Our crews are ‘crane-safe’ operators working on our three barges. The loads are 600 to 700 truck-loads per barge on the biggest vessel. It takes about eight to 12 hours to load.”
    

The dump sites are usually on the Fraser River, or as they say in the  industry, ‘The River,’ including Haney, and Riverview, and in the New Westminster log sorting ground. Seaspan discharges on both dock and into the river. Howe Sound used to be a area of intense log sort activity but that is no longer the case, although logs continue to be discharged there, with a lot of chips delivered to Howe Sound Pulp and Paper.
     

Other sites for discharge include Ladysmith Harbour and Bernice Arm, and Nanaimo as well, especially when shipments are destined for Asian markets. Seaspan's Log Barge Division employs 16.

Klahoose First Nation setting an independent economic development course for the future

A new Klahoose First Nation administration facility puts a beautiful face on the future overlooking Desolation Sound from Squirrel Cove is being built from, "our own-source revenue that is funding the buildings," explains Chief Ken Brown. James Delorme editor of the Klahoose F.N.'s daily current account of the nation, says, "From the Squirrel Cove store you can clearly see the massive beams competing with the trees in the skyline. The main rafters are in place and now the final roof is being installed. Windows are near completion and walls are being erected to finish the various rooms inside."
    

Chief Brown, says, "No federal money is being used to build these structures. We are trying to get away from the dependency on INAC for our own community development." The chief wants to break the cycle of easy-come-easy-go federal transfer payments, a dependency cycle that grew in part from the wreckage left by Residential School system.
    

The chief says, "We are looking at what delivers results to our members, and we continue to promote the process of healing within our community," regarding these issues and the Chief who grew up in the nearby Comox Valley because Klahoose people stood in exile for many years in their history, exile by poverty that is.
    

The Nations being cut-off from their territory and left with a patchwork of the Indian Reserve properties, most of which became deserted by the people, for a complexity of reasons most of which are really bad news for Indian people, including that system that ran stolen children through a tortuous gauntlet that destroyed national aspirations and personal well-being in countless numbers of lives.
    

Construction of an 8-plex housing project starts now. This will create community restoration. The 11 or so Klahoose Indian Reserves may be largely deserted, but a couple hundred people with growing families can look to the future of a place in the Cortes Island community that survived the onsluaht and now begins to thrive again.
    

It is job-one with the chief to make skill development a priority that neatly follows healing. The chief envisions the future where his able people return and reconstitute their former ways of industrious activity. It stems from healing, indeed, and the chief says, "We believe in the whole idea of Residential School healing. Workshops must continue to promote well-being and encourage our people to reach higher to a better future for themselves and the generations to come."
    

He also needs healthy and well adjusted people to steer the course, "We have a lot of balls in the air, juggling a host of opportunities to set an independent course for our community." A solid start is the Klahoose First Nation involvement with run-of-river hydro developments underway with Plutonic Power. The power projects are important, a steady stream of economic output flowing through Klahoose First Nation entities.
    

Forestry in the Toba Valley is a further keystone in their planning. "That is one source of investment and management and employment opportunities we are putting together for the members of Klahoose. We are changing the approach we take to the future as a community," says Brown.
   

 The Klahoose economic development activities include growing mussels, a mariculture industry in their native waters. It is the modern reality of First Nation communities, says Brown, "that the welfare culture has to be broken and thrown on the scrap heap. It has thrown all First Nation communities for a loop." 
     

Klahoose is a village of 80 people on Cortes Island. There does exist no less than another 200-plus members elsewhere and they would like to return to their traditional territory, still in their possession and tribal members. The community making opportunity possible by drawing people into Klahoose reserve on Cortes, beginning with new housing in the form of a six-plex housing development.
    

This will be followed by a series of building schedules on new housing. The other reserves may remain deserted for awhile, but new things are going under construction this spring and summer of 2010, and lasting into the autumn. In fact this month saw Slegg Lumber's Richard Maris delivering loads of lumber to get the process of construction started this month.
     

Brown says, "With our economic base we are bringing the blood back into the village. Klahoose has a number of uninhabited Reserve properties but the Cortes property has always contained the village." The economic foundations are laid so now there is a demand of labour and an opportunity for skill development, but it doesn't stop there. "We have big forestry development opportunities as well, including forestry that will ensue from the power developments in Toba Inlet," says the chief.
     

Klahoose are Coast Salish with close ties to Sliammon First Nation in the vicinity of Powell River. A lot of work gets done in Powell River on the forestry side in Klahoose. Late Autumn of 2009, "Chief Ken Brown signed the documents to complete the conversion of Tree Farm License 10 to Community Forest Agreement (CFA) K4C. The official licensee remains Klahoose Forestry Limited Partnership, which is operating for the sole benefit of Klahoose First Nation," says a leading forestry article on the Klahoose website (see 'Klahoose Converts Tree Farm License').
     

Editor James Delorme continues, "This was a key piece of the Incremental Treaty Agreement signed in March and a big step forward for us ensuring sustainable management of the valley and economic success for this business venture. This conversion is a first in the province and Klahoose now owns one of the largest CFAs in the province. In terms of re-branding, we may want to start referring to ourselves as Klahoose Community Forest (in Toba River valley)."
     

Chris Roddan of Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation, and a partner in Theechim Forest Management  says, "In our approved CFA Management Plan, we have committed to undertaking a timber supply review process and new AAC calculation before September 2011." The community forest planners engaged by Klahoose First Nation are proceeding after the First Nation obtained Forest Investment Account funding to begin the planning process.
     

"Along with long term timber supply planning, we have to develop strategic plans for conservation of old growth and wildlife habitat," says F. Oathen Xwegus and Theechim Management Group are the forestry management and engineering companies owned by Klahoose First Nation. A & A Trading of Vancouver is moving a lot of the timber into market for Klahoose.

Two First Nation historic sites for summer visits, Rocky Mtn House, and Hat Creek

Eight different First Nations as well as Métis are known to have traded at Rocky Mountain House over the 76-year history of the trading posts. This includes the Nehiyawak, Piikani, Siksika, Kainai, Ktunaxa, Tsuu T’ina , Nakoda, and Atsina.
    

The year 2010 marks the sixth year of partnership between Parks Canada’s Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site and the Métis Nation of Alberta. At Bastions & Bones, August 20 – 22, 2010, Blackfoot culture will feature special guest drummers, dancers and ceremonialists from the Piikani Nation.
    

The event commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Piikani blockade on the North Saskatchewan River.  The blockade prevented David Thompson and his North West Company Brigade from continuing west to trade with First Nations on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. This is part of the International David Thompson Bicentennial initiatives.
    

Historic Hat Creek Ranch is in Bonaparte First Nation territory, and Bonaparte is well-represented on-site.  Sandra Gaspard, Bonaparte member, is Manager of Historic and Cultural Operations, and Curator of the significant First Nation presence at the facilities. “We have five different knowledge streams of Shuswap culture to explain,” says Gaspard.
    

On display are cooking and food preservation, lodging, hide and tannery, a replica kikuli that can house 23 people. The historic site features many outstanding structures like an 1860 Roadhouse to go along with the Shuswap Native Interpretive Site, which itself employs eight people, all with First Nation heritage.
    

On the second weekend of August the First Nations host a traditional Pow-Wow on-site at the Historic Hat Creek Ranch, “It’s no-charge admission and we are often feeding the crowd with breakfast or lunch during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.,” says Gaspard. 

Meanwhile, until the closing at the end of September, visitors can experience Shuswap ancestry performing drum, flute, and 17 styles of dance. 

Ehattesaht has rebounded in all the ways that matter

Ernie Smith is the forestry manager for Ehattesaht First Nation, in Zeballos, B.C., a Nuu Chau Nulth community in the middle of Vancouver Island. “We received our first forestry license in 1974. We ventured out on our own forestry program a couple years ago,” says Smith. “We bought back our forestry licenses and now we do the hiring of contractors and managers to run our 100 percent-owned forestry.” 
    

Ehattesaht owns Aa’tuu Forestry, “We quadrupled out annual profits since embarking on our own. We have 100 percent control and managers work directly for us.” Aa’tuu Forestry owns no equipment, “We hire contractors and avoid the huge payments and high overhead costs.” Smith notes that Aa’tuu Forestry economic development has 100 percent support of the voting membership of Ehattesaht, approximately 350 members, many of whom “live all over the place, from Vancouver to Victoria to Nanaimo.”
    

Smith says, “We started in on this profit-oriented forestry strategy about six years ago.” As more Annual Allowable Cut was negotiated to add to the 7,700 Cubic Metre FRA, Aa’tuu Forestry was established three years ago as AAC rose to over 200,000. “We generally cut about 110,000 CM in a year’s operation, so we’ve come a long way and maintain full control over everything.”
    

Smith says, “Capacity Management works with us to manage the AAC with their RPF,” Registered Professional Forester, “and when you’re logging every detail counts. We do a lot of heli-logging and selective logging. It is a highly strategic planning to log in our traditional territory and ship out the logs out by barge.” They work with companies like Pallan Timber to get the wood to market.
    

Aa’tuu’s logs are sold at Vancouver Log Market prices, Most of the wood is sold before it hits the ground, be it cedar, Douglas Fir, hemlock, or spruce. “We use Storey Creek Trading to broker our wood.” Smith says Ehattesaht is committed to logging sustainably with complete transparency to members, “Our books are open to members, and we hold regular community meetings to discuss forestry specifics.”
     

Ehattesaht has about 15 loggers in the community and a couple of trained fallers and a couple of silviculture engineers. “We have a training strategy for our membership that began with the formation of Aa’tuu Forestry.” As of this writing the Ehattesaht members are receiving silviculture training in the summer of 2010
     

In another recent initiative Ehattesaht spent $800,000, in 2009, to build a road to the west coast of the island linking Zeballos to Queens Cove. “The reserve there was almost deserted,” says Smith, “and the site was practically abandoned for a while. “We are in the process of re-developing it.” 
     

Ehattesaht folk are Nuu Chah Nulth with a whaling and fishery history. “We were given small reserves the size of postage stamsps becasue the federal government said we lived off the ocean. Well, our people had spiritual places and shrines all over the territory. We hunted throughout our traditional territory. We were 3,000 people at first contact and that was reduced to a mere 58 by the 1960s.”
     

The pathway to progress for Ehattesaht is now re-established in the mainstream of society, and they are making it happen in forestry. Today the elementary school in Zeballos is a majority Ehattesaht students. “We faced a large debt of $3.5 million to buy-back our renewable license, and that is a debt we are close to retiring.” Aa’tuu is run by a board of directors, three from Ehattesaht and one non-Ehattesaht member. 

ACES certification for ocean fisheries continues to evolve

The coastal people on both sides of the Americas made their diet from the oceans. They sustained a relationship with a pristine environment and whether it ever returns to pristine is an open question but people in the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association want to work in that direction. Therefore they created Aboriginal Certification of Environmental Sustainability in Aquaculture (ACES).
    

Chief Richard Harry, Homalco First Nation in Campbell River, B.C., has spent more than a decade developing awareness about fish and seafood from the First Nation point of view through the AAA.  ACES was developed to identify First Nation criteria, and Chief Harry says, "We have some assistance to develop ACES pilot programs on the west coast of Canada, including local First Nations and Mainstream Canada."
    

ACES begins with integration into existing programs and engages various industry and environmental players to create a sustainable fisheries and seafood economy. It includes everything from farm-based components to area-based components, to regional components. Certification under an emerging Aboriginal system would be supported by program monitoring, auditing, and other certification processes, and program compliance incentives are built-in to the ACES framework.
    

ACES was first introduced in 2006, "The concept we've got is what we're putting legs to." The program reaches all levels of coastal fisheries and covers a wide range that needs to fit with models of sustainable development. "Environmentally speaking the First Nations often have different concerns from place to place." Example: the Haida have large fishery in Dungeness Crabs that exists no other place. 
    

 Mainstream Canada (Cermaq) contributed funding to launch a pilot program on monitoring fish farm developments from the Aboriginal perspective, with the intention to make operations compliant with the wider area of interests operating in the coast. ACES will be developing out of these pilot efforts to operate sustainable development in the coastal economy.

Recession hurt but Millbrook remains on track toward self-sufficiency

Millbrook First Nation in Truro, Nova Scotia, is well-positioned to develop their community into a self-sufficient First Nation, says Chief Lawrence Paul, “We have a wide range of developments underway, including a land-based aquaculture development growing Arctic Char,” and, the chief notes, the reason for a land-based growing facility, is, “Apparently the saltwater is too contaminated to grow healthy fish for human consumption so they are growing them in a land-based re-circulation system.”

Alex Cope, Millbrook Band Manager, says fish farms are not that friendly to the environment and can not be controlled as in land based facilities. The chief says the Arctic char are currently growing in the tanks in a Millbrook-owned facility, “There are buildings on our Millbrook First Nation property, leased from us, where they are hatching and beginning to grow out the Arctic char, and some salmon and trout.”

This is but one in a list of economic developments that puts the Millbrook First Nation on the pathway to self-sufficiency.  “We developed the Truro Power Centre in 2001, which now includes a call centre, motel, RV park,  restaurant, and Tim Hortons,” and an anchor tenant in Sobey’s, which was the first tenant at the Truro Power Centre.

On a satellite-reserve in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Millbrook First Nation constructed a new building that General Dynamics leased a couple years ago. General Dynamics is designing, maintaining, and servicing software for the new Canadian Forces Sikorsky helicopters, which will begin arriving in Dartmouth in November 2010.

In fact, this Mi'kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia governs the reserves of Millbrook IR 27, Cole Harbour 30, Beaver Lake I.R. 17, Sheet Harbour IR 36, Truro 27a, Truro 27b,and Truro 27c. Chief Paul works with a 12-member council that has highly qualified personnel in elected positions. They are elected from a membership over 1,400, “Closer to 1,500,” says the chief, “and that will increase to we expect close to 1,800 with a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision,” McIvor v. Canada (Registrar of Indian and Northern Affairs), [2009] B.C.J. No. 669, the B.C. Court of Appeal, “that affects Band membership across Canada.”

Prior to the current endeavors in economic development, says Lawrence, “our focus had been on the Highway 102 Connector to the TransCanada Highway. Now the focus is on a new hotel in immediate vicinity to Truro, Nova Scotia, in a destination-oriented tourism property that will include an indoor climate-controlled waterpark. “It will be busy year-round,” says the chief.

Alex Cope says, “We have three buildings with VLTs (Video Lottery Terminals) in Millbrook, three centres in Cole Harbour, and one in Sheet Harbour with a total of 117 machines VLTs,” and the VLTs are making money. “These VLT’s are good income for Millbrook,” says the chief, “big breadwinners.” The 117 VLT’s supplied much needed income for some of the current development that Millbrook is undergoing, and much-needed cash benefits to the community membership.

“Every man, woman, and child receives $1,000 in the third week of June and $1,500 each November. For those under 19 years of age the money is held in trust until they become of-age.” The Millbrook community is able to thrive and people are working, “We are creating jobs for ourselves and adding community services, like a health centre and a youth centre. Our kids are enrolled in the public school system. We have 19 graduates coming out of high school this year.

“We have accessed programs at university and Nova Scotia Community College trades so our graduates can pursue post-secondary opportunities. Our administrators have university educations. For example, Alex, our Band Manager, got a B.Admin at University of New Brunswick.”

Millbrook’s leadership mentored a handful of their members to become educated and available for administrative duties for a growing group of Millbrook communities. Once the 102 connector highway was established, due to no small amount of lobbying by Millbrook, they obtained access to the mainstream of provincial life and commercial opportunities began to emerge.

“Commercially we are doing well, and the goal is self-sufficiency,” says Lawrence. “We are breaking away from government dependency and economic development is our course.” The excitement around Millbrook these days relates to the new hotel, naturally, “a $27 million facility that will employ skilled workers when it’s built,” and meanwhile, contracts to build will supply jobs for a growing Millbrook First Nation labour pool.

Chief Lawrence Paul is an elder now, and he had a long career in various kinds of endeavors, “I was an auto body man, a furnace repair man, I went to business college, and Nova Scotia Agriculture College. I was in the army in 1951,” where he spent time in Germany during the post-war period of German reconstruction. He says, “In 1984, I decided to run for chief,” and he has served 14 consecutive terms now, 28 years in the office. “I am not ready for retirement. I have another term in me after this one.”

Nine hundred Band members live in Truro area, and 100 non band members and 100 non natives dwell in the Millbrook sub-divisions beside Truro, “We have Band members all over Canada and the U.S.,” and those members can be proud of their ancestral home, “Native people are going to go forward same as the rest of society,” says the chief, “toward self-sufficiency and into the fight for the almighty dollar,” he quips.

“Now that we have leveled the playing field we are promoting education as the way forward for our people.” Self-sufficiency is in the not-too-distant future. “The recession hurt us too, but we recovered and we have opportunities to pursue that will make it happen sooner rather than later,” including management of the building and Band-owned property in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Glenn Squires is CEO of Pacrim Hospitality Services of Halifax that developed and manages the Super 8 Motel located at the power centre, and Glenn says Millbrook's practical business model works well for the firm, one of Canada's largest privately-owned hotel management companies.

"We enjoy working with Millbrook and had a great experience with the partnership model, which works to the advantage of all," says Squires. "The relationship is very collaborative and geared to a win-win over the duration of any given project. We have done several quite successful projects with Millbrook and plan to do more in the future."

Power Centre businesses include a multiplex theatre, sit-down and drive-through restaurants, a 50-room hotel, a recreational vehicle retailer, a service station, a call centre, an aquaculture facility and the Glooscap Heritage Centre. Truro Power Centre is not the only location Millbrook has to offer for partnership opportunities.

The band owns other lands in Nova Scotia, including 19 hectares in Cole Harbour. In the past five years, the area has seen significant activity, and the Band built two apartment buildings in 2003 and 2007 worth more than $11 million. The buildings were designed specifically for empty nesters.

Capacity building is visionary at McLeod Lake Indian Band

McLeod Lake Indian Band, north of Prince George, B.C., is building investment and employment capacity for their Tse'khene members in a variety of industrious directions, "It started way before I came along," says Chief Derek Orr, (elected 2008), and, he says, economic development initiatives of MLIB are especially evident since MLIB joined the Treaty 8 groups of First Nations.
    

History shows MLIB began coming into its own prior to 1987 when leaders advised the Canadian Government of their intention to join Treaty 8. This move was made after a forestry  company, Duz Cho Logging, begun in the early 80's, produced enough profits to hire legal counsel and negotiate McLeod Lake’s adhesion to Treaty 8 with Canada.
    

As economic capacity grew, MLIB created Duz Cho Construction in 2002 to work in the oil and gas and coal industries of north eastern B.C.. A lobby effort with oil companies garnered the construction company its first contracts and Duz Cho Construction was profitable by the middle of the decade. Acting further on the growing oil and gas activity in North-East B.C., MLIB made a major share purchase of  Summit Pipeline Services Ltd.. 
    

Summit constructs pipelines, conducts diagnostic and repair services for pipelines, municipal sewer systems, pulp mills and other industries. MLIB in the most recent context has business development programs to assist MLIB members gain skills and establish business ventures. They are doing so with owner-operated equipment, forestry, construction, steel sales and fabrication, and business in the accommodation of work crews. 
    

Having members working in the surrounding traditional territory is not new because these lands and waters once provided abundant harvests of fur and wild game to Tse'Khene people. The key is to build a capacity to do the changing nature of work, "We targeted seven or eight members who were mentored and encouraged to join the effort at building the capacity for McLeod Lake Indian Band to participate in industrial development."
    

MLIB endured the toughest year in recent history, especially tough for a new chief, youngest in their history at age 35. "It's been one and a half years since I have been able to give members any good news. A lot of community services for youth and elders were put on hold while the world economy battered the financial stability of MLIB."
    

The MLIB operations are back in high gear and the Band is looking closely at the coming opportunities in mining, regarding Terrane Metals Mt. Milligan project in Mackenzie, B.C.. This gold/copper mine could provide good jobs and new business opportunities within their traditional territory. 
    

MLIB is working closely with Mt. Milligan Copper/Gold Mine, "We are working to ensure jobs, business contracts, revenue-sharing, and environmental monitoring. We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Mt. Milligan Mine to provide environmental monitoring at the mine site. It's important because we have a huge demand for services on reserve," says the Chief.
    

"Housing and facilities for youth are in short supply. We have people who wish to live in McLeod Lake but instead live in Prince George, Williams Lake, or Vancouver. We need more facilities in Prince George to provide services to our members who live there." Youth can choose from a variety of directions to plan a career, in jobs that work for the benefit of all Tse'Khene.
    

The MLIB elders need a facility that provides health and accommodation but remains within traveling distance, so the Band is making plans for a multi-plex that accommodates extended living and assisted living in Mackenzie, B.C.. 
    

MLIB has further opportunities for members to enter the mainstream economy in creative ways like green energy projects in wind energy (Dokie Wind/Plutonic). In fact, Mortenson Construction has begun the process of constructing the first elements of a major wind farm facility.
    

The Dokie Wind Project includes 48 Vestas V90 wind turbines, a switch-yard and transmission lines at a total project cost of $228 million. The Dokie project is on-time and on-budget and represents Plutonic Power's first wind project. Upon completion, it will be the largest wind farm in British Columbia. 
    

Mortenson Canada Corporation is a leading North American wind energy contractor, and uses a mix of their own personnel, local hires, and local subcontractors. The Dokie Ridge area - near Chetwynd, BC - is considered to be one of BC's best wind power assets in terms of generation potential. 
    

The existing network of provincial roads, logging roads, and rail corridors is ideal for transporting the turbine components which can weigh as much as 70 metric tones. This project will deliver 333,000 megawatt-hours per year of clean electricity to BC Hydro, commencing on March 1, 2011, under a 25-year EPA, through a partnership between Plutonic Power and GE Energy Financial Services.
    

Chief Orr says MLIB also has plans for additional community infrastructure that includes an indoor ice-skating rink.

Industry based skills development a strong suit at Northlands College

The Northland College Campus in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, is practically speaking a First Nation college, "The majority of our students are First Nation and Metis," explains Carson Poitras, "and the college engages these students in a wide variety of programs and courses," including many through distance education delivered at communities throughout northern Saskatchewan. 

Northland College celebrated the 20th anniversary two years ago, and 22 years of Northlands College has created a large alumni of First Nation graduates. Programs include GED preparation, technical programs, and many other more advanced programs, some delivered in outlying areas, however, "Some courses are lab-oriented programs," such as one recently delivered in La Ronge, "like engineering technology where students came to the college campus in La Ronge," said Poitras.

The college provides accommodations at hotels and motels for students to stay in La Ronge comfortably for the duration of their participation. Others are delivered in a far-reaching manner, for example, "In the first week of the coming month of August 2010, the college will deliver a heavy equipment operators program using simulator technology, which will run from August 2010 to May 2011 with two trainers and one simulator." 

The heavy equipment operator program uses a portable simulator to teach students to drive rock truck, operate loaders, dozers, excavators, and other equipment. "We put the simulator on an 'air-ride' trailer and take around northern Saskatchewan to places like Buffalo Narrows and many other communities to teach eight students per session how to operate mine and forestry equipment."

The college bought their simulator in 2006 to deliver programs that run on a continuous intake basis. It is very uncommon for non-Aboriginal students to be in these courses. The courses are five weeks long and demand for delivery of courses, "is huge," says Poitras. "Uranium mining is booming and calling for skilled labour and First Nations personnel will fill those jobs. "

Skills are in demand in a resurging mining economy in Saskatchewan, "There are several new or reconstituted mines in the north," says Poitras, "thus we use a lot of industry partnerships to deliver training," he says. "We receive $3 million in funding and deliver $20 million in training each year, so you can see that industry helps deliver a lot of the programs."

Chief Ralph Dick leading We Wai Kai into a bright economic future

We Wai Kai First Nation has a growing portfolio of enterprises and economic development initiatives in the lands and waters of their traditional territories, and a good example of their success has occurred on May 18, 2010, when We Wai Kai officials held a Grand Opening of the Quinsam Crossing. Maurice Magowan, Comptroller for We Wai Kai, says, "We held the opening to thank the contributors on the Quinsam Crossing project for slogging through the mud all winter on building on the site."

The We Wai Kai Nation held the Quinsam Crossing Grand Opening to showcase the development strategy for its 60-acre Quinsam Crossing commercial site on Willis Road, Campbell River, B.C..  Magowan said, "Quinsam Crossing is a traditional crossroads for travelers on the North Island for several centuries. It is being developed as a destination retail and recreation gateway to Campbell River for the North Island."

The Quinsam lands are southwest of downtown Campbell River and are, "well situated to receive the heavy flow of tourist traffic along the Inland Island Highway. Once developed to completion this service centre will be the nearest to the Campbell River and District Regional Airport."
 

Magowan notes that the first business founded on these lands is a We Wai Kai-owned auto service centre that includes a convenience store and propane filling centre. Future development plans include a broad mix of retail, commercial and recreational uses.

 

"The We Wai Kai business plans involved initial studies that suggested Quinsam Crossing could generate full and part-time employment for 580 people during construction and 650 to 800 operational jobs once it is up and running."

In addition, up to 1,500 indirect jobs could be created from this development. Magowan adds that, "Chief Ralph Dick's vision for this property has been clear, consistent and tireless. He has worked for many years to articulate and carry out the strategy developed throughout the decades by elders of the We Wai Kai Nation to bring greater equality, prosperity and employment to its people."

Another We Wai Kai economic initiative is found in the We Wai Kai Seafood Corporation. Shawn O'Connor operates the corporation, "We did this pilot project with Island Scallops to replace the disappearing salmon and herring fishery with submerged-line technology to grow scallops," says Shawn, "and we are growing them in the Suttle Channel of Johnstone Strait," beside Quadra Island and We Wai Kai's Indian Reserve No. 9.

O'Connor says We Wai Kai has members with sets of skills that mesh with the scallop growing industry's technology, "Piloting seign boats and running hydraulics technology and other skills taper nicely into the development." The corporation awaits assignment of tenure to their two year development, which is, "operating under a temporary industrial use permit to be converted tenure."

The scallop development in Johnstone Strait is essentially invisible to Quadra Island residents because growing the scallops is done by submerged line and the only signs of development are navigation buoys that mark the site.  O'Connor says, "Right now we have 500,000 scallops growing in the pilot-phase of the project. Two and half to four million scallops would be a commercially viable operation."

We Wai Kai was assiduous in selection of the site, "We wanted an even tide and nutrient rich waters with good anchorage. It turns out we found an excellent site because the scallops are just about ready to harvest in their 2nd year," a growth rate that is exceedingly fast comparatively speaking, as many scallop developments work on four-year cycles.

We Wai Kai has created six jobs currently and  O'Connor says the employees are keenly motivated to work in a sustainable industry that operates on the 'green' side of the fishery. "No feed or supplements are put in the water. It's lines and cages and monitoring, plus the site creates habitat for small finfish feeding off the ecology of scallops." Due to this ecological input, sports fishers are catching cod near the site for the first time in many years, says Shawn.

The initiative was inspired by Chief Ralph Dick about six years ago and commenced two years ago. Island Scallops' Les Rombough says, "They want to do this on their own and they have the skills to do it. We supplied scallop seed, equipment, and expertise to get it started. We could take this to any First Nation that is interested. It has been absolutely phenomenal to see the project develop with the fishing expertise of the people on the site."

He notes there are significant start-up costs to deal with "boats, plus the expense of our equipment, including long-lines, rope, anchors, pearl nets and lantern nets. There is no positive cash flow until two years in, and no profit for at least four years. Wages and tenures and other expenses are all paid up front."

Fifty percent First Nation students at North West Community College

North West Community College has campuses in Hazelton, Houston, Kitimat, Masset, Nass, Prince Rupert, Village of Queen Charlotte, Kaay Llnagaay, Smithers, and Terrace. Ruth Wheadon is the Director of NWCC campuses in Haida Gwaii. "In Haida Gwaii, we run developmental programs that we call Essential Skills for the Workplace (ESWK)," says  Wheadon .
 

"We also run Continuing Education and Training courses that include work-preparation in first-aid, eco-system management, natural resource management," and others, "but the ESWK contains an art focus in the past couple of years, and ESWK continues to offer development of work skills."
 

The art focus introduces business management skills to artists. "We give them the tools to take their art to the business level, and we introduce them to success strategies in marketing their work." Students range in age from their late teens to their fifties. The main purpose of ESWK is to bridge the gap between the public school system and learning today, including a culturally inclusive environment for study.

"It allows students to experience a different perspective on education," says  Wheadon. NWCC also offers university credit courses, "First year anthropology and 2nd year ethno-geography are running this summer from July 14 to 30, 2010, including a four-day trip to Swan Bay Rediscovery Camp, and other trips to four different field sites in Haida Gwaii." 

The Swan Bay Rediscovery Program operates a cultural camp to teach Haida cultural skills and knowledge, plus new life skills, self-esteem and confidence to help build character. Swan Bay puts traditional Haida values at the center, and students at the camps participate in a variety of activities designed to challenge, teach and nurture.

The NWCC website explains that the college operates in a region that encompasses 104,689 square kilometres with a combined population of approximately 83,000 people. "This region is home to seven First Nations whose students make up over 50% of the College's student population." 
 

First Nation participation in the college serves to enrich the cuture of the NWCC community and strengthen its connection and relevance to the area. The College region's geographic boundaries are defined by Haida Gwaii on the West, Houston on the East, Hazelton to the North, and a less defined Southern boundary approximately 800 km due north of Vancouver.